This post started out rather ambitious. In fact, it was always intended to be several posts i.e. ” What I learned in:” RW1, NYC24, business and economics reporting, Ken Leher, etc. But I should have known better. I’m already in Vietnam, managing a new media startup by Ringier and it’s been impossible to find the patience and concentration to reflect on my time at Columbia. So I’ve condensed this post into a list of quick reminders, lessons-learned, matters-of-attention, etc. They are not in any order of importance, but rather there to help remind me of what I learned while at the J-School. Feel free to add your own or criticize mine. This list is not exhaustive.

Reporting and Writing 101 – RW1

• What is news? See earlier blog article. I learned more about this in NYC24 than in RW1.
• The first quote in your story should be your magic quote. It should get to the heart of your story. Another useful way to think of this is to imagine that this quote is something you could never write. Again, this was emphasized more in NYC24, than in my RW1.
• LIRQS  or lede, impact, react, quote, scene. Legend has it that Lawrence Van Gelder, a former reporter/editor at the New York Times developed this form of article writing. Up late at night at the Times office, Van Gelder scrutinized the papers’ best articles to see what they all had in common. The result, LIRQS – a loose formula for writing a news article. Columbia Professor Ari Goldman is incorrectly credited for LIRQS. Though it’s not his fault. Blame the Internet.
• Develop a beat list – a diverse source of contacts. Use it. Pre-reporting is more important than reporting, as you’ll more often have to go story-hunting than story-reporting.
• Don’t fall into the trap of exclusivity of new and print media. It’s not a zero-sum game. The two need to work together and serve each other.
• Don’t bury the lede/nut.
• You’re not “off the record” till I agree. Politicians are always on the record until you both agree otherwise. If it’s not “on the record,” it’s non-attributable background info.
• AP Style. Follow it. It’s a sign of professionalism and training. I’m sure I’ve butchered it in this blog post.
• Attribution. Don’t say “many” or “several,” be specific. Be very wary of using anonymous sources.
• Overall lesson, journalists tell stories. Practice and engage in story-telling.
• At times, employ the usage of a “cosmic graph.” This section or paragraph of your story describes how the story has a larger impact than the nut graph.
• For criminal reporting, start with the action in the story that has the most impact and circle back to it in a somewhat complicated chronological fashion. This writing pattern is known as an “e,” due to the shape your story would take if you began your article with the crime and then moved forwards slightly before circling back into time.
• Smile when you pitch story. Be passionate. Be excited. Articulate the news value and be sure to be able to rattle off a very clear and fascinating nut graph. Be able to be brief.

NYC|24 – Digital Media (when I was there, they called it “new media”)

• Take your time setting up your shots/interviews. Don’t let the source or yourself rush you. Make sure you’ve got the best light. The best sound. Don’t settle for hasty b-roll. Take you’re freaking time! Haste makes waste. The trick is moving quickly – as you know what to look out for, you’ve done your pre-reporting and have a script – but it doesn’t mean you should overlook LIGHT, BACKGROUND and SOUND.
• Zoom with your feet. Don’t be intimidated.
• Use the highest ISO before you go tinkering w/ f-stops, etc.
• Get close, medium and wide shots EVERY time you shoot a story.
• Hold your video shot for at least eight seconds. Count it out.
• Use a tripod when you shoot video. Only professionals can go without and they plan that effect.
• Script-preparation. Don’t go out unarmed. Have a script that identifies precisely the audio and video you’ll need for your story. You should be able cross-off items as you go along.
• Confirming sources. If a source is truly willing to be a part of your story, don’t be afraid to be explicitly clear and upfront about what you’re looking for in your story. If you are afraid your source isn’t strong, then they aren’t. Don’t rely on PR handlers/agents etc.
• Pre-reporting. The best stories come from having thoroughly canvassed your beat. You should know the environment, people and general happenings related to your story before you begin shooting it.
• B-roll is not throwaway video that’s helpful when making L cuts. It’s supposed to support your story and your nut.
• Revealing the “Scene” (see LIRQS above) shouldn’t disappear from your multimedia story-telling.
• Another difference between amateur video and professional story-telling is capturing the “action” and the “reaction.” For example, you have crisp B-roll of a boxer punching, and his trainer saying something like, “Keep em’ up. Keep em’ up.”

Learned and/or improved on:

1. Final Cut Pro
2. FTP Management
3. Dreamweaver
4. Photoshop
5. Flash 3.0
6. Wordpress
7. Podcasting
8. Blogging
9. Twitter
10. Computer Assisted Reporting

Business and finance reporting

• Ask dumb questions.
• Whenever banks go chasing companies to loan money, be afraid.
• Be sensitive to ethics.
• Interview CEOs out of their office – out of their comfort zone.
• Don’t do topics, focus on stories.
• Ask yourself why you should be a journalist when you could be a short-seller.

Random

• You think you’re there to learn about journalism, and you probably will, but it will be the relationships and friendship you form with your classmates that will prove to be the most influential and educational.
• Watch your back. Without word, my master’s project adviser published an article in the New York Times about our story two days before our project went live. Very upsetting. Very suspect. Sadly, this industry requires you have lots of good ideas privately and very quickly. No one will give you a story and worse, some peers may steal them.
• Take classes outside of the J-School.
• Make sure you make at least one solid professional contact. Whether she likes it or not, I am determined to work for Cyndi Stivers at some point in my career.
• Know how to clearly articulate what is news and opinion.
• Read the WSJ, not just the Times.
• Lament that there is no good coffee shop nearby school.
• Ride your bike more often.
• Use the university gym.
• Enjoy New York.

Many new media students signed up for NYC24.com to work with Professor Duy and Carla Baranauckas on improving our video storytelling techniques. Few of us understood that the class was less video work and more multimedia production at the time. (Disclaimer: I missed a video technique class two weeks ago to report on a NYC|24 story.)

I’m not complaining, but readjusting. Instead of working on digging deeper into Final Cut and preparing better storyboards, the class has gradually gotten used to the idea that it appears to be that the professor’s intent is to throw us into the deep end of Final Cut, Flash, Dreamweaver, FTP management, design, editing and news writing all at once. Sink or swim.

The result, in my opinion, is messy. Students spend their precious time over several elements, rather than concentrating on one. In time, I suspect/hope that this grueling method will evolve into a streamlined, well-thought-out Web site, with a range of stories told using steely advanced new media techniques. But for now, it’s hard to see how close the shore is, when you’re choking on salt water. See some of our latest work.

Columbia’s use of eminent domain to seize remaining properties that allegedly stymie its expansion plans in West Harlem is getting a lot of criticism in the news. In a short day book assignment for Professor Goldman’s RW1 course, I covered the first public hearing held this week by Columbia and Empire State Development Council. The uncut and rough article is below. As an aspiring journalist, I’m not sure how to voice my personal opinion on the matter, if at all. Thoughts? Other article and op-ed links are below.

Columbia University’s use of eminent domain to seize remaining West Harlem properties for its intended Manhattanville expansion project continued to raise strong opposition from West Harlem preservation activists and nearby community leaders at a public hearing on Tuesday night. The hearing was one of the last held by the Empire State Development Council, a city organization contracted by Columbia to assess its expansion plans, before the university begins to redevelop 17 acres of city space between 125th and 133rd streets in West Harlem.

“This is a rich institution engaging in a land grab,” said Mario Mazzoni, a local resident referring to the University’s use of eminent domain. Community Board 9 Chairwoman Patricia Jones also spoke out against the General Project Plan, “I have no choice but to oppose. The use of eminent domain or even its threat cannot be tolerated. It eliminates any legal avenue of fair and objective negotiation.”

University officials did not publicly comment on the usage of eminent domain at Tuesday’s hearing, but released a public statement stating explicitly that the University’s would only use eminent domain for commercial property, not residential housing.

Opposition speakers also spoke out against the City Council’s assessment that the Manhattanville area was sufficiently blighted so as to warrant eminent domain seizure by Columbia. Joan Levine, a Morningside resident asserted that, “The area is not blighted. Columbia bought properties then let them deteriorate, then called them blighted.” The blight assessment by the Council was a critical component in allowing Columbia to proceed with eminent domain seizure.

There was no indication after the second to last hearing on the General Project Plan by Columbia and the Empire State Development Council (ESDC) that officials would amend or alter either the schedule or scope of its existing expansion plans. However, local residents at the hearing against the Plan said it was likely that they would file a legal appeal following the last public hearing by ESDC this Thursday.

In a humorous twist to the evening’s affairs, Walter South, an anti-Columbia expansion activist, proposed a substitute motion arguing that Columbia President Lee Bollinger’s home was under-utilized and thus, also blighted. Rather than seek eminent domain, instead he asserted that university officials should exchange their homes with affected local residents.

President Bollinger reiterated the University’s need for expansion space to remain an internationally competitive educational institution and avoided discussing the eminent domain topic in his opening remarks. He stated that the University’s basic position is that the economic benefits stemming from the development and “revitalization of the area” will serve as a major boost to the local economy. He eventually added before closing, “You don’t want to be in charge of an institution that is not in sync with its neighbors.”

Other articles about Columbia’s expansion plans:

1. Gothamist: ESDC Has Its One and Only Public Meeting About Manhattanville
2. WSJ: Columbia University Has No Right to My Land
3. New York Times: Hearing on Columbia Plan Elicits Emotional Speeches

I’ll probably be skewered somehow for this, but before introducing Columbia’s new Dean of Academics, Bill Grueskin, Dean Lemann recounted that when the School of Journalism set out to revamp it’s famed School of Journalism six years, it failed to consider the role of the Internet. Yikes. Am I the only one that considers this to be a major admission of error on the School’s behalf? I’m trying to take myself back six years. Was the Internet’s impact on the publishing industry that far off?

Five years ago, as backwater 2nd tier nobodies in Qingdao, China we were experimenting at RedStar with user-generated content in our editorial production process. It was ugly and bulky but hey, at least we were out there doing it. Email newsletters were already rampant six years ago. Personal websites/blogs were well on there way and the Lawrence Journal was tooling about w/ its Django CMS. I’m not even scratching the surface on what else was out there then i.e. Yahoo and Google News/Alerts. Hell, Dean Grueskin’s team was pushing online subscription and ad sales at WSJ.com beginning in 2000.

I realize that the private sector does rather than than reflect. But I am surprised that as of six years ago, “the Internet wasn’t even brought up” in that discussion, according to Dean Lemann. How did this happen? This is not to say that the school hasn’t made enormous strides in implementing new media students. Former Columbia J-School students marvel at the new media schedule of courses now. As a new media student myself, I’m also pleased to see the school boldly proclaim out loud to the entire class that it will be its new media students employed come June 2009. But such an admission of Johnny-come-lately scared the hell out of me.

I suppose I’m just chomping at the bit to see the School maintain its leading reputation for the highest level of journalism. Resting on your laurels is never a good thing. Hungry schools, CUNY, NYU, Missouri, Northwestern and Berkeley are chomping at the bit to puncture Columbia’s elite status in journalism. We should be on guard and cultivating an offensive strategy that sees Columbia hosting Knight Digital Media Center workshops, collaborations with the Computer Science Dept and Business School among other innovative but basic partnerships. Let’s set up some experimental labs that explore entrepreneurial publishing, print-to-web-to-print editorial production and journalism beyond 2050. Don’t just recognize the impact of the Internet, embrace it wildly and pioneer Columbia’s presence further into the future. Just don’t preach to the choir or scare us like that again.

P.S. Oh, here’s Dean Bill Grueskin’s ‘Three Trends Impacting Journalism Today’:

1. The increasing abundance and availability of news sources
2. The ever-expanding role of the user or reader in producing news
3. New sources of news from unconventional or entrepreneurial tracks. I especially liked the part where we were introduced to Paid Content. This concept is what I’m referring to. Plus, check out the job listings!